4 ms·

But isn't that the whole point? What's "safe stopping distance"? Enough to react to the vehicle in front of you slamming the breaks at what speed? It all change

But isn't that the whole point? What's "safe stopping distance"? Enough to react to the vehicle in front of you slamming the breaks at what speed? It all changes based on road visibility, if there are turns, if there are other cars, etc. It's completely different to drive behind a vehicle going at 100 km/h on a empty, well maintained (yeah, 3rd world where I live has this variable too), straight, ascending, dry road; vs behind a sinuous route downhill on a mountain, with less lanes, under some weather condition, etc. If a car in front of me SLAMS the breaks in the first scenario, I'm certainly not responsible for not being 3km away from him. In the second? Totally different. "Safe stopping distance" is not a fixed number. And I doubt any car can properly calculate that because there's just too much context to be accounted for.

xoa 5y ago
>What's "safe stopping distance"? At least 2-3 seconds, minimum. Did you not take any driver's ed classes? >Enough to react to the vehicle in front of you slamming the breaks at what speed? Time, not speed. It will take the average person around 1.5 seconds to react, and a car at least a second to break. Time is not hard regardless of distance, you can see when somebody in front of you passes literally anything, a sign, a tree, a rock, a road market, whatever, then just count. FFS. >If a car in front of me SLAMS the breaks in the first scenario, I'm certainly not responsible for not being 3km away from him Not responsible for being 3000m away? Sure. ABSOLUTELY RESPONSIBLE for not being 50-80m way? Yes. Both legally and morally. Maintaining at least 2-3 seconds of distance just isn't a big fucking ask. And yes that's just as true if it's an "empty, well maintained" road, well why the fuck are you tailgating in that case? Shit happens. Animals suddenly leap across the road, a pothole has opened up, someone has collapsed in weird places etc. I literally was walking with a friend along an empty straight road in a rural area a few weeks ago and they suddenly just blacked out while walking and collapsed directly into the road. Scared the crap out of me. They'd had a pulmonary embolism not too long ago and their lung function was badly affected and while they're trying to build back up sometimes they just... black out. And if you're in a car you won't see someone lying down until you're fairly close. Low probability event? Absolutely. But over hundreds of millions of people it happens. People sometimes need to stop as fast as possible. It is in every single way your job not to rear end them if they do. Period.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  > At least 2-3 seconds, minimum. Did you not take any driver's ed classes? GP is right, though, it is highly context dependent. If you are following another car and paying attention, then two seconds is enough if they slam on the brakes. There is an implicit assumption that two cars have roughly equivalent braking ability. But what if they do some sort of assisted stop? Bridge abutment. Head-on collision. Or what if there is a stopped car in front of the car in front of you, and the car in front of you swerves out of the way leaving you bearing down on an unexpectedly stopped car in the lane? 3 seconds won't be enough. I still remember vividly many years ago coming around a high speed sweeping corner behind another car, at a perfectly reasonable stopping distance, and then they jerked the wheel into the oncoming lane and suddenly I was facing the back of a stopped car. That was exciting. I did not hit the car, but it was close, very close. The only way to avoid that is a stopping distance much greater than 2-3 seconds.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ravishi 5y ago
  Well, good luck with that. You can apply that kind of thinking to yourself, but not to everyone else. People don't operate like that. Sometimes, if you keep that distance all the times like you're saying you'll end up putting yourself and other people in danger, just because you're the only one thinking like that. I've had my fair share of furious truck drivers cutting me at high speeds in terrible situations at night, while our baby is crying in the backseat, his mother is exhausted and we can't find a single spot to stop and breathe before progressing. It has happened during the day on empty roads too. I've been in danger for acting like that while everyone else doesn't expect me to. Just like the safe-break assistant in this situation.
Handytinge 5y ago
> "Safe stopping distance" is not a fixed number. And I doubt any car can properly calculate that because there's just too much context to be accounted for. If people truely cannot calculate this, we shouldn't have cars. Personally I know my car quite well and its stopping distance in most conditions. I always operate it further than the stopping distance. If I couldn't, I wouldn't drive. It's not worth the risk for myself or anyone else.
- ravishi 5y ago
  Well, we should not have knives nor anything that poses any contextual danger in any situation either. Oh, nor should we use fire.
  - Handytinge 5y ago
    These things are significantly less likely to cause the death of a stranger, especially as they're things we use in our own home. However if you don't know the basics of knife safety (you shouldn't throw them, they're sharp, etc), maybe you shouldn't operate one.

xoa 5y ago

>What's "safe stopping distance"? At least 2-3 seconds, minimum. Did you not take any driver's ed classes? >Enough to react to the vehicle in front of you slamming the breaks at what speed? Time, not speed. It will take the average person around 1.5 seconds to react, and a car at least a second to break. Time is not hard regardless of distance, you can see when somebody in front of you passes literally anything, a sign, a tree, a rock, a road market, whatever, then just count. FFS. >If a car in front of me SLAMS the breaks in the first scenario, I'm certainly not responsible for not being 3km away from him Not responsible for being 3000m away? Sure. ABSOLUTELY RESPONSIBLE for not being 50-80m way? Yes. Both legally and morally. Maintaining at least 2-3 seconds of distance just isn't a big fucking ask. And yes that's just as true if it's an "empty, well maintained" road, well why the fuck are you tailgating in that case? Shit happens. Animals suddenly leap across the road, a pothole has opened up, someone has collapsed in weird places etc. I literally was walking with a friend along an empty straight road in a rural area a few weeks ago and they suddenly just blacked out while walking and collapsed directly into the road. Scared the crap out of me. They'd had a pulmonary embolism not too long ago and their lung function was badly affected and while they're trying to build back up sometimes they just... black out. And if you're in a car you won't see someone lying down until you're fairly close. Low probability event? Absolutely. But over hundreds of millions of people it happens. People sometimes need to stop as fast as possible. It is in every single way your job not to rear end them if they do. Period.

rootusrootus 5y ago
> At least 2-3 seconds, minimum. Did you not take any driver's ed classes? GP is right, though, it is highly context dependent. If you are following another car and paying attention, then two seconds is enough if they slam on the brakes. There is an implicit assumption that two cars have roughly equivalent braking ability. But what if they do some sort of assisted stop? Bridge abutment. Head-on collision. Or what if there is a stopped car in front of the car in front of you, and the car in front of you swerves out of the way leaving you bearing down on an unexpectedly stopped car in the lane? 3 seconds won't be enough. I still remember vividly many years ago coming around a high speed sweeping corner behind another car, at a perfectly reasonable stopping distance, and then they jerked the wheel into the oncoming lane and suddenly I was facing the back of a stopped car. That was exciting. I did not hit the car, but it was close, very close. The only way to avoid that is a stopping distance much greater than 2-3 seconds.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ravishi 5y ago
Well, good luck with that. You can apply that kind of thinking to yourself, but not to everyone else. People don't operate like that. Sometimes, if you keep that distance all the times like you're saying you'll end up putting yourself and other people in danger, just because you're the only one thinking like that. I've had my fair share of furious truck drivers cutting me at high speeds in terrible situations at night, while our baby is crying in the backseat, his mother is exhausted and we can't find a single spot to stop and breathe before progressing. It has happened during the day on empty roads too. I've been in danger for acting like that while everyone else doesn't expect me to. Just like the safe-break assistant in this situation.

Handytinge 5y ago

> "Safe stopping distance" is not a fixed number. And I doubt any car can properly calculate that because there's just too much context to be accounted for. If people truely cannot calculate this, we shouldn't have cars. Personally I know my car quite well and its stopping distance in most conditions. I always operate it further than the stopping distance. If I couldn't, I wouldn't drive. It's not worth the risk for myself or anyone else.

ravishi 5y ago
Well, we should not have knives nor anything that poses any contextual danger in any situation either. Oh, nor should we use fire.
- Handytinge 5y ago
  These things are significantly less likely to cause the death of a stranger, especially as they're things we use in our own home. However if you don't know the basics of knife safety (you shouldn't throw them, they're sharp, etc), maybe you shouldn't operate one.